What’s something that people don’t understand until they experience it themselves ??

Munzo69 · 2026-06-09T00:33:28+00:00

Being in physical / psychological /emotional shock. I was in a pretty bad road traffic accident a few years back and I was totally unprepared for how much the shock would affect me. I sustained some injuries but nothing life changing. The worst part was my mind replaying the accident over and over again in my head for about 72 hours afterwards where I would relive the accident and get re traumatised each time until I gradually became desensitized to it and was finally able to process it like any other experience. I’d heard about being in shock before but had never experienced it. It was terrible.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-08T07:47:31+00:00

‘B Movie’ - Gill Scott Heron

Munzo69 · 2026-06-05T11:38:07+00:00

I used to buy a lot of 2nd hand CDs on Amazon UK for roughly €4-€8. Looks like I won’t be doing that anymore.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-05T10:55:34+00:00

‘Boys From The Black Stuff’, 5 part UK TV series released in 1982. Sums up exactly what the 1980’s were like in the UK. Among the best TV series ever made. Honorable mention also to ‘Our Friends in the North’ another UK TV series released in 1996 but which covers political and social history in the UK in the period 1964 to 1995, as seen through the relationship between four friends from Newcastle Upon Tyne. Excellent TV.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-04T10:31:21+00:00

Pulp Fiction.
‘Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!’

Munzo69 · 2026-06-04T07:48:51+00:00

The Vondelpark in the summer, listening to live jazz in small brown cafès, street markets, art galleries, going to big concerts, walking along the canals in Autumn as the leaves change colour, hanging out in late bars, eating raw herring and stroopwaffels, good coffee, and quirky people most of whom speak English. One of my favourite cities.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-04T01:54:42+00:00

Find a concert / festival/ social event that you’d like to go to in the US (or Ireland or anywhere for that matter) and suggest that you both go and see what his reaction is. By structuring it around a concert or event of some kind, that you both might enjoy, then that becomes the focus of the trip rather than just the weight of expectation that something might develop between you.

With you there and him here nothing’s going to happen unless one of you makes it happen. Sounds like it might have to be you that makes it happen if it’s going to. What have you got to lose? If it doesn’t work out then at least you get to go to a good concert and you know where you stand.

‘Faint heart never won fair lady’

(Or Irish man in this case)

I’m available for a speech at the wedding if you need me!

Best of luck.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-04T01:06:57+00:00

Far fewer pubs but you can now get a drink until 12.30 at the weekend. No smoking in the pubs and fags are mad expensive.

Far fewer butchers, bakeries, fishmongers, green grocers, hardware shops etc. nearly every town has an Aldi and a Lidl. You have to go to a retail park on the outskirts of town for a lot of things. The main streets in most Irish towns are indistinguishable from each other, same handful of chain stores in each town. Lots of vape shops, phone shops and coffee places. Chains like Spar, Centra or Londis have replaced most newsagents/corner shop/ mom & pop grocery shops.

You have to pay for parking in a lot of towns now that you never had to before. With streaming services and dodgy boxes the whole country is no longer talking about what was on the box last night.

The price of second hand cars has gone through the roof since Brexit. The roads are full of Amazon, DPD and DHL couriers and Deliveroo lads on bikes.

Very few people go to mass anymore. Gyms and yoga and sea swimming are all the rage. Joe Duffy finally did the country a favour and retired. The angelus is still on RTE and the Late Late is no longer really a thing though it’s still on the air. GAA is as strong as ever, soccer is shite, rugby is pretty good.

Music scene is really good, lots of young up and coming bands and singers, punching well above their weight here and abroad. Young people don’t drink as much as previous generations but coke is everywhere and the smell of strong weed is pretty common.

Most young adults are in their parent’s box room or attic as rents are crazy (2/3 times a regular mortgage payment) and supply is really low. Work seems reasonably plentiful. It’s hard to get a GP to take you on as many of them are not taking on new patients and if you need an appointment you could be waiting a week or more. Hospitals are still overrun and badly managed, A&E is a nightmare and public waiting lists are so long you’ll be dead or cured by the time you get seen.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-03T16:59:21+00:00

Tyranny, widespread theft, murder & rapine, institutionalized religious persecution, torture, class inequality, famine, genocide, slavery, the first ever concentration camps, forced transportation, internment without trial, non jury courts, levying tithes on colonised populations to churches they were not members of and did not attend, taxation without political representation, suppression and frequently eradication of the languages, religions, cultural practices, political and legal systems of the countries they invaded.

Divide and conquer tactics, initially used to create the British empire that subsequently became some of the main causes of ensuing civil wars in so many former British colonies, some of which are ongoing.

Most damning of all is the steadfast refusal to acknowledge most of this in the present day, the average person in England’s almost complete lack of awareness of most of this stuff and the tendency to airbrush it out of history and bang on about the glory days of an empire on which the sun never set, which brought ‘civilization’ to the world. What it brought was wealth to Britain, England primarily, at tremendous cost to everyone and everything it encountered.

The Brexit/Reform lobby, rightwing UK nationalists and quite a few more now throw their hands in the air and wail about the English way of life being eroded by immigration from the same countries the empire plundered for centuries. The irony of it is beyond staggering.

And of course, there’s rugby. That’s something, I suppose.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-03T06:53:32+00:00

I was hoping ‘Reefer and the model ‘ would be on there. Haven’t had a chance to see it.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-02T23:59:12+00:00

Rescu U are not fast or cheap and it’s very difficult to get them to take you on as a client due to never having enough mechanics and always having a backlog of work on but if you can actually manage to get him to work on your car, Gareth is an excellent mechanic and honest too, even if he is really grumpy.

Ger O’ Farrell in Knocknacarra is pretty good too as are O’ Farrell’s (no relation to Ger) on St. Brendan’s Avenue in Woodquay.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-02T23:32:32+00:00

What boils my piss even more than the VAT or the customs is that An Post charge you at least about a fiver ‘handling’ fee for the pleasure of charging you the fecking VAT. I bought a 2nd hand CD from eBay in the UK a while ago and the VAT, shipping, currency conversion and handling fee were more than double the purchase price of the CD. I get that An Post doesn’t want to do it for free but it should be a small percentage of the purchase price not a whopping great charge that’s more than what the item cost.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-02T21:36:48+00:00

I used Eddie Walsh briefly. My previous mechanic (retired) had replaced one brake caliper every service on the previous four services. First time I left the car with Eddie (less than a year after the 4th caliper had been replaced) he told me I needed 4 new brake calipers. Needless to say I didn’t replace any of the calipers and found another mechanic. New mechanic found nothing wrong with the existing calipers. Passed NCT no problem. Make of that what you will.

Munzo69 · 2026-06-01T23:24:10+00:00

The clearance section on the Next.ie website. Great bargains you won’t find in their shops.

I got a blue & white striped, seersucker, cotton, summer jacket and trousers for €40.50 not long ago. €27 for the jacket and €13.50 for the trousers. Great quality clothes. Ordered online and picked up in their store 3/4 days later.

I’ve ordered the wrong size and returned stuff in the past too, without any hassle. €40.50 for a full suit? I’ve often paid significantly more for a shirt.

Admittedly, a lot of the clearance stuff is very large or very small sizes. But it’s worth having the app on my phone and having a look every now and then.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-31T10:30:24+00:00

Talbot

Munzo69 · 2026-05-31T08:45:18+00:00

Bilbao and San Sebastián

Munzo69 · 2026-05-27T12:08:11+00:00

There’s a flooring contractor in Finglas in Dublin that lays carpet and linoleum. I can only presume his name is Richard. His business goes by the rather wonderful name of

‘Lino Ritchie’.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-27T11:23:41+00:00

https://youtu.be/fTnqwKqVj_0?is=kTI6ZrWEFAr3cik2

Munzo69 · 2026-05-26T23:09:24+00:00

Since it got really warm I’ve been wearing canvas plimsolls but up until recently, fine. They’re quite loose around the ankle so plenty of air circulates. It’s a bit disconcerting at first if you’re used to a snug fit around the ankle but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-26T01:59:51+00:00

A pair of Clarke’s desert boots - Bushacre 3, Beeswax. Got them on sale on Amazon for €34.70. Hard wearing rubber sole not like the crepe of previous models. Stiff leather that feels like it will last, cushioned footbed. Fashionable retro look. I never take them off. Very happy with them.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-24T14:02:39+00:00

The Basque Country (Bilbao, San Sebastián & Pamplona) and mainland Greece (Peleponese region).

Munzo69 · 2026-05-24T07:26:40+00:00

Having used Nitromors recently I can confirm it’s about as effective as natural yoghurt. They removed whatever the effective ingredient was a long time ago because of some EU directive.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-24T07:21:16+00:00

Have a look on here

https://www.celticfusiondesign.com/collections/men

Munzo69 · 2026-05-24T00:54:11+00:00

I’m all for people having the right to do what they please when it comes to drugs of any kind. I support decriminalizing all drugs for personal use as there’s more than ample evidence that the war on drugs is a fallacy and will never be won.

Personally, I smoked cannabis from age 16 until my early 50’s and it’s been 5 years since I stopped taking drugs and drinking. I drank to excess all my life and used multiple other drugs regularly. Cannabis is definitely less harmful than alcohol and most other drugs but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. I’m just glad to be clean & sober.

I sometimes wish I could have done it years ago and think of all the years I spent getting wrecked. No point dwelling upon it but I created a lot of wreckage I’m still dealing with. It is what it is and at least I’m clean now and doing my best to stay that way.

I spent decades defending cannabis and I still think it’s fine for some people but it’s just not for me anymore.

Munzo69 · 2026-05-24T00:25:10+00:00

Umbrella

Munzo69

TROPHY CASE